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The undisputed historical-heavyweight of action games is back, and this time we’re setting sail to the Golden Age of Piracy. It’s the early 1700s and Spain and England have called a truce to their long war, leaving many skilled privateers in the West Indies without respectable employment; and that means piracy on the high seas.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag adds seamless naval gameplay to the long-running series. Ubisoft has come a long way since the largely-linear ship sections in the last outing; with the new game engine letting you freely explore land and sea with little loading to be seen – only when starting main story missions or arriving at one of the game’s larger ports.
SEAMLESS SAILS
You can run across the rooftops of a fishing village, leap down onto your boat, the Jackdaw, and whisk her out of harbour. Sailing is dumbed down, you pretty much just point your ship and go, speeding up and slowing down is like changing gears in a car, with more or less sail put up to your requirements. The navigable area is huge, centred around Cuba, and takes about 30mins to navigate across.
Chasing a merchant ship, and its escort, through a brewing storm is just an everyday activity in Black Flag
Once out in open waters you can use your spyglass to spot a merchant vessel to plunder (presuming that defending Galleons aren’t too close). Attacking it with your cannons, you bring your ship alongside and climb your rigging, jumping from one ship to the other you start to wreak havoc from above the swirling melee, before taking out the captain and claiming the vessel.
It’s blood-stirring stuff and it all fits in perfectly with the mechanics and feel of previous Assassin’s Creed games. Free-running amid the rigging for example, or the cut-and-thrust of close combat when boarding. It may fit well, but this is still largely familiar stuff, with only slight refinements to the combat, free-running, exploration and stealth elements.
A SALTY DOG
In this blood-soaked era you play as Edward Kenway, a much-feared Buccaneer. He blunders into the age old conflict between Templars and Assassins; so as well as fighting for fame and fortune, he must also take on the Templars and their allies.
Ubisoft persists with its distinctly-gallic dual narrative, though it has been reworked, placing you (yes that’s actually you) as the protagonist in the modern-day side of the story. Occasionally you’ll be pulled out of Kenway’s life in order to work at a swanky games developer. It’s all very clever, and helps justify many of your objectives within the game, but frankly we’d be happier if Ubisoft ditched the whole conceit – and the spent the time on the main game.
The sparkling blue waters of the Caribbean are a lovely place to spend some time
Which isn’t to say that love hasn’t be lavished on the Caribbean. The location looks stunning and is the small islands, forts, fishing villages and coves all sparkle with character. There’s legendary pirate figures too: Blackbeard, Calico Jack and many more real-life swashbucklers are central to the game’s plot.
The graphics are sublime at times, we tried the game out on the PS4 and the next-gen hardware provides a similar experience to a high-end PC. Detailed textures, long draw distances and great particle effects. The sea is like a living, heaving thing, and smashing through waves in a storm is a thrilling experience. The jungle-choked islands look superb too and the towns feel as well-researched as ever, enlivened with historical detail.
EMERALD ISLES
The game is spread across some 50 locations on the open world map. As well as the big ports of Havana (Spanish), Kingston (British) and Nassau (a pirate freetown), there are fishing villages and inland plantations to plunder, hidden coves and Mayan ruins to explore and miles-upon-mile of treacherous jungle. Forts can be attacked from the sea, using your ships cannon, or infiltrated from land by stealth.
Although it’s an open world, you won’t be able to take on the most powerful galleons of the Spanish and English navies at first – each carries up to 100 guns apiece. You’ll need to upgrade your 60m long Jackdaw as you progress, from six cannons up to 56, and by adding mortars, explosive mines, swivel guns and even a diving bell. Yes there’s even underwater exploration, allowing you to swim down and plunder wrecks.
Your ship, the Jackdaw, is (literally) one of the biggest characters in the game. You’ll have to keep her repaired, crewed and loaded, plus add regular upgrades
You’ll earn your own pirate base, which you can upgrade with conveniences such as shops, later you’ll gain your own fleet of ships that will plunder in your name, and for your profit. Then there’s treasure to find, with maps to follow, which can be brought up on a tablet or smartphone, as can your sea chart, to help you navigate more easily.
On top of all this is a solid multiplayer mode, though one that doesn’t bring naval combat unfortunately. Still the sneaking, running, chasing and backstabbing are all a nice change of pace from the usual shooting, shooting, shooting of most online competitive games.
CONCLUSION
If you haven’t played an Assassin’s Creed game recently then this is a great place to get back onboard. The meta-narrative has been rebooted, the historical setting is undoubtedly the best to date and the new sea-faring elements are a huge, and excellent, addition to the series. If you’ve tired of the series’ key mechanics, though, then beware that this game will feel very familiar in parts.
That said, it’s also far greater than the sum of its parts, the best pirate game ever (sorry Monkey Island). As a swansong for the Xbox 360 and PS3 era of gaming, this is an undoubted masterpiece, one that lives up to the scale of GTA V, but which shows you don’t need to shock to entertain, and you can even educate a little too.
However, it’s hard not to mark it down for the sheer familiarity of most its core mechanics. So five stars if you’re new to all this, or if you really like pirates, but you might want to knock one star off if you’re tired of wielding those twin blades.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Price | £48 |
| Details | www.ubi.com |
| Rating | ***** |
